With the increasing fame of the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), the global economy is expected to see a significant number of these in use. According to a recent report from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), around 15 retail CBDCs are expected to be in circulation across the world.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution offering banking services for national central banks and a forum for discussing monetary and regulatory policies. The BIS, which is a Switzerland based entity is owned by 63 national central banks, represents 95% of the world economy.
In its report, the BIS said nine central banks had also indicated they’re “very likely” to issue a CBDC for wholesale use in financial markets within the next six years. According to the study, out of the 86 central banks surveyed by it, 93% are now undertaking CBDC work.
Further, the study lists major jurisdictions such as India, the U.K. and European Union (EU) all seriously exploring issuing a digital version of their fiat currencies. The report added that the global work on CBDCs has made further progress” since last year, with the work particularly intense in emerging economies where it’s seen as a way of helping unbanked people.
In an attempt to count on the increasing uses of digital assets, the BIS survey says that “to date, stablecoins and other crypto assets are seldom used for payments outside the crypto ecosystem,” with cross-border remittances and consumer purchases the most popular uses. To this, the bank hopes on to increase the accountability by promoting CBDC adoption. Further, the report refers to the high chances of retail CBDCs that are expected to be active by the end of this decade. The report states:
If issued, retail CBDCs can be expected to complement and coexist with other domestic payment methods.
The CBDCs have gained significant attention from nations and institutions across the globe with the overall increasing interest in digital assets. In particular, the BIS have been very active on the topic of CBDCs and their adoption and foresees the asset as a very important financial weapon in the future.
In March, the BIS revealed the results of Project Icebreaker, a cross-border payment model for central bank digital currency (CBDC) conducted in collaboration with the central banks of Israel, Norway, and Sweden. Continuing the same vision, last month the institution released a blueprint for a global “unified ledger” aimed at supporting CBDCs and tokenized assets.